Monday, September 24, 2012

The internal security services of China and
Afghanistan signed a formal agreement at Kabul on September 22, 2012, to have a
liaison relationship between them. The agreement, inter alia, provides for
exchange of security-related intelligence, counter-terrorism co-operation and
training of Afghan police officers by China.

2. The agreement was signed by officials of the two countries
during an unannounced four-hour hush-hush visit to Kabul by Mr.Zhou Yongkang, a
member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of
China (CPC) , who is also the Minister for Public Security. The Ministry of Public
Security is responsible for internal intelligence and security. In addition, it
also supervises the work of the police and the criminal justice system all over
China. Counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency and counter-intelligence are among
its responsibilities. The external intelligence service of China is called the
Ministry of State Security.

3. Officials in charge of internal security and
counter-terrorism in the two countries have been in informal touch with each
other in the framework of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), of
which Afghanistan is an observer. An agreement to formalise and upgrade this
relationship was takenduring a visit of
President Hamid Karzai to Beijing in Juneto attend an SCO summit.

4. The formal establishment of a liaison relationship
would enable the two services to exchange intelligence regarding the activities
of the extremist organisations of the Xinjiang province of China and the
Central Asian Republics.

5. There has been close co-operation among the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the
Islamic Jihad Group (also from Uzbekistan),the Islamic Movement of East
Turkestan ( of Xinjiang) and Al Qaeda. All these organisations have their
command and control centres in North Waziristan in the Federally-Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and their terrorists often transit through
Afghan territory on their way to Xinjiang in China and the Central Asian
Republics.

6. While the level of extremist activity by the
Uighurs in the Xinjiang province of China from their sanctuaries in North
Waziristan has remained high, there has been a decrease in the activities of
the Uzbek groups and Al Qaeda in the CARs. Despite this, Chinese concerns over
the remnants of the Uzbek groups and Al Qaeda operating from Pakistani
territory remain high due to the threats that they could pose to energy
supplies from the CARs through pipelines to China.

7.While Chinese officials outwardly speak highly of
the co-operation from the Pakistani intelligence for dealing with threats from
these groups, they have not been quite satisfied in reality. All terrorist
incidents in Xinjiang have had a Pakistani link either in the form of training,
or sanctuaries or recruitment.

8.Recently, the Pakistan Government has terminated
the contract given by it to a Singapore company for the running of the Gwadar
port on the Mekran coast in Balochistan constructed with Chinese assistance.
This port, which was meant to meet the external trade requirements of Western
China, Afghanistan and the CARs, in addition to that of Pakistan, has not got
going due to various teething troubles. There have been reports in sections of
the Pakistani media that Islamabad has been pressing a Chinese company to take
over the responsibility for the running of the Gwadar port.

9. While the port is very well equipped from the
point of view of modern installations, its security cover is weak due to the
disturbed situation in Balochistan and the activities of anti-Beijing Uighur
and Uzbek elements in that area. If the Chinese take over the responsibility
for the maintenance of the port, its security will be a matter of major concern
to them. Since the co-operation of the Pakistani intelligence agencies may not
be satisfactory in this regard, they may have to depend on the Afghan
intelligence services for the necessary flow of intelligence.

10. It is interesting and significant that Mr.Zhou
flew secretly to Kabul after a two-day visit to Singapore where considerable
information will be available with the local port management experts regarding
the kind of difficulties the Singapore company faced in Gwadar before it decided
to pull out. Mr.Zhou seems to have gone directly to Kabul from Singapore and
not through Pakistan. It is not known whether he stopped over in Pakistan on his
way back.

11. According to media reports, during the talks in
Kabul Mr.Zhou signed agreements on increased security and economic cooperation,
including a deal to help “train, fund and equip the Afghan police”. The Xinhua
news agency of China quoted him as saying as follows: “It is in line with the
fundamental interests of the two nations for China and Afghanistan to
strengthen a strategic and cooperative partnership which is also conducive to
regional peace, stability and development. “

12.No details regarding
the economic co-operation agreement signed during the visit are available. The
Chinese state-ownedcompany called the
China Metallurgical Group (MCC) operates a $3 billioncopper mine in the eastern Logar province.
The project was expected to go into production in 2013, but there has
reportedly been a delay due to security reasons.

13.This is the first time
since 1966 that a senior Chinese Party and Government leader has visited Kabul.
In 1966, then President Liu Shaoqi visited Kabul. ( 24-9-12)